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July 2017

Bringing the ‘steel frame’ in shape

In the changing gamut of the nation's power elite where Prime Minister Narendra Modi “controls” all significant policy issues, his ministers have become secondary. It is the bureaucrats who are calling the shots in governance. Though officers getting an edge over people’s elected representatives in Modi’s scheme of things has raised eyebrows, his decision in putting bureaucrats with a clean image at the top helm of Union Ministries is undoubtedly a welcome step.

The NaMo team is a combination of both high-profile and lesser-known bureaucrats. But among all the Modi men, there is one particular bureaucrat who, according to insiders, is the most influential and has the final say in all key postings in the Union Government. Our Cover Story profiles Dr PK Mishra who, according to insiders as well as an online survey conducted by Bureaucracy Today, is the mightiest among all power-puff bureaucrats in the Team Modi when it comes to matters related to governance and the powerful Appointments Committee of the Cabinet chaired by the Prime Minister which decides all key postings in the Union Government.

Mishra, along with his team, is working silently behind the scenes to bring the “steel frame”, which has been bent beyond measure, in shape. Under the administrative acumen of the 67-year-old bureaucrat, the PMO has been able to dismantle the nexus of power, cash and influence at the heart of the Delhi Durbar by introducing the 360-degree system for the evaluation of senior bureaucrats. This system, like in many corporates, amounts to conducting a holistic evaluation across talent, skills, social and personal parameters instead of simply looking at file work. The feedback of an officer’s performance, efficiency and working style is sought from subordinates and stakeholders.

The Modi regime has made it clear that at the end of the day only performance will matter. The officers should realise that only those bureaucrats with impeccable honesty, clean personal record and prodigious work ethic will survive and those who don't perform will be made irrelevant.

As the Modi Government is striving towards making India usher in an era of unrivalled prosperity and catapulting the country to its aspired high position in the comity of nations, we bring to our readers the heart-warming tale of a young bureaucrat in Assam who is silently fighting a battle and winning the war against the rumour that Japanese Encephalitis vaccine will lead to sterility in the minority community. In the far-flung Muslim-dominated villages of Assam’s Bongaigoan district, IAS officer Anbamuthan Muthuswamy Palaniswamy, who is the ‘Bureaucrat of the Month’ for the July 2017 edition of Bureaucracy Today, is quelling the rumour and encouraging people to get the much-needed vaccination against the disease which affects and kills hundreds of people every monsoon in the Northeastern States.